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>> Statement: [Page 123]

“In September 1973, learning that he was not going to be extradited to France after all, Hubbard returned to Lisbon, where the Apollo was in dry dock.

  He amused himself by going off on photo expeditions in Portugal.”

>> True Information: Mr. Starkey, Captain of the Apollo wrote that “This statement is false on several accounts:

  1. The ship was not in dry dock when Mr. Hubbard returned from the work he had been doing in the United States of America. The ship went into the Lisbon dry dock on the October 19, 1972 and departed from dry dock on the October 23, 1972. Mr. Wright’s book would make out the Apollo was in dry dock for almost an entire year.
  2. Mr. Wright tries to make it sound like Mr. Hubbard did nothing when he came back to the ship other than amuse himself taking pictures ashore. This never happened. After Mr. Hubbard’s return to the Flagship in mid September 1973, he seldom went ashore. He was hugely productive re-acquainting himself with the status quo aboard the ship and the many renovations and repairs that had been done, familiarizing himself with the statistics of Scientology organizations and Advanced Organizations around the world and their management from aboard the Apollo. During the time between his return to the ship in September and the end of 1973, Mr. Hubbard authored and published some 23 HCO Policy Letters on administrative matters, 16 HCO Bulletins on technical matters, and he met with his officers and crew and gave no less than 53 lectures and briefings aboard the ship.
  3. Furthermore, while all this was happening, we did not sit at anchor in Lisbon as Mr. Wright describes. For the next 2 months I sailed the ship up and down the Portuguese and Spanish coasts, frequenting the ports of Lisbon, Setubal and Cadiz; and we did not voyage from the mainland to the island of Madeira until November 15, 1973, arriving in the port of Funchal on November 16.”